


A Change of Heart

by Keissen



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bullying, Depressed Hank Anderson, Gen, Good Dog Sumo (Detroit: Become Human), Hank Anderson Being Hank Anderson, Hank Anderson Being an Asshole, Hank Anderson Swears, Kid Connor, Pre-Canon, Protective Hank Anderson, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-27
Updated: 2019-09-12
Packaged: 2020-09-27 20:05:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20413549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Keissen/pseuds/Keissen
Summary: When life gives you lemons make a lemon-flavoured vodka until you meet your persistent neighbour who doesn't know how to behave like a normal human being.Or maybe it’s just another day in life of Hank Anderson.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own rights to either the game or it's characters.

Why was I still doing this to myself? Hank Anderson had been asking that question himself every fuckin’ morning. Especially when he woke up on hard-ass tiled floor in his kitchen. Who had thought it was a good place to put them here he had no idea but he would have punched them in the face for doing so in the first place.

He slowly opened his eyes and blinked a couple of times to clear his vision; it took him some time to realize where exactly he was in the kitchen. Some brown shape was hovering above him to the right. Was it a table? Probably.

Hank stared blankly ahead. Another beautiful day full of bullshit. He slowly sat up while holding his head, it certainly killed him slowly, it felt like he had a boxing match the other day with Mike Tyson or whatever android that replaced all of them. Who was going to be next today? Detectives? Or maybe homeless? Yeah… Not many homeless androids out there in contrast to jobless, miserable humans…

What the hell was he talking about? Oh yeah! His head fucking hurt.

Good thing he didn’t end up in pool of his own vomit like two months ago.

Empty bottles were littering on the tiled floor making the look like a tornado had gone through the room in a mad search for liquor. Some of their contents had spilled out as if an abstract artist had used this very floor as their canvas and their paint was a very high alcoholic watercolours. Every minute when the painting was left untouched, it stained the ones pristine floor with a colour of a whiskey.

His head hurt from all that drinking he did last night by the way. Had he said this before?

Great… He had another hangover.

He slowly got up without feeling nauseous - a miracle, because the last time he hadn’t been so lucky, and sat on nearby chair with heavy sigh while hiding his face in his hands. 

It had been a while since he ended up unconscious on the floor without any memory of how he got to this point in his life. The last thing he remembered was when he had gotten home from the bar. Had he lock the door? Probably not. Was here anything worth stealing? Aside from a TV, which was the only new device in this house…? He glanced at his living room. The TV was still standing and playing some shitty news channel.

_...serial killer in Detroit. DPD advises you to stay during the night at home and to close all doors and windows…_

‘’Where is this fucker when you need him, huh?’’ He glared at the screen through the gap between his fingers.

It was not as if Hank had a dead wish. He was just tired of giving a fuck about things and later on in life Hank realized that no amount of worrying would change how shitty the world had become. He was perfectly aware about the thoughts of certain individuals. Some people would call him reckless. He would then tell them to mind their own fucking business. Let’s be honest, those doors and windows wouldn’t be a match for a serial killer with something as common as a rock. 

Anyway, the same people would call him an alcoholic old man, but he still tried to keep them safe even when he came to work a little bit late. So sue him for some alone time in the evenings. His ‘me time’ may involve some drinking but there were worse scumbags than highly functioning alcoholic or whatever the term was to describe the same shit but in a nicer way. He was still working and keeping the economy going.

Hank should probably do the working if he wants to eat a damn sandwich during lunch.

He sighed again as if the world weight was on his tried shoulders. Maybe it did. At least this little part of his personal hell called Detroit.

What time was it even? He looked around.

**11:23 AM**

He should be at the police station at nine… it was too fuckin’ early to be awake. Who had decided that work starts in the morning?

He got up and went to the living room. Sumo looked at him and barked. He didn’t bother to get up when he saw him coming and despite this, he still demanded petting. The lazy dog knew how to make him do whatever he wanted. He petted Sumo briefly and glanced at the half-empty bowls. 

He should probably go to work if he wanted to arrive before noon… He was already late, but who knows if he would be home today? A few minutes won’t hurt. Crime scenes weren’t going anywhere.

He went to fill Sumo’s bowls with water and dog food. He was the only living creature that would notice his disappearance. It is a sad thought, but Hank wasn’t one of those miserable assholes who forgot to feed their pets because they had felt sorry for themselves. He knew his shortcomings but being an animal abuser or a sadist wasn’t one of them. 

‘’What do you do when somebody try to break here?’’ He put his hands on his hips and looked at the dog with narrowed eyes. Sumo started to wag his tail, which caused Hank’s stern face to melt instantly.

‘’Yeah...you attack them. Good boy.’’ He said in softer tone. There was nothing he could do. Sumo always had a special place in his heart and it wouldn’t matter how much life made him thick-skinned, his dog would melt his though exterior with the simplest action. Like an ice cream during hot summer.

There was only a happy bark as an answer.

He went to his front door and started searching for his keys in different pockets. He found them after a minute. With triumphal ‘Ha!’ he opened the door and nearly knocked down someone on his porch. Hank looked down surprised.

There stood a pale kid. He was maybe ten years old with dark hair and brown doe like eyes. His hair was perfectly combed back, not a stand out of place. He was wearing a mini suit, everything was black except white button down shirt, which was as white as a freshly fallen snow, and a blue tie perfectly positioned on the small figure.

Hank after thirty years still couldn’t do it as good as this child.

He looked like one of those FBI fuckers with I’m-better-than-you attitude. He felt his blood boil slowly as if his irritation was a dry wood and this small detail was a spark that ignited it and made it burn slowly.

It just made Hank think about his own attire. He was wearing the same clothing as the day before, something comfortable and not at all matching the other pieces. Chasing after a suspect was a pain in the ass in a suit so that was the reason why Hank didn’t wear them. But still… looking at his unwanted visitor, he felt underdressed in his yesterday clothes.

‘’I’m Connor. I’m your new neighbour.’’ said the kid - Connor - in a chirpy voice. The meaning of this sentences didn’t register until a moment passed. There was only one questions going around Hank’s head. It bugged him the same way the mysteries of life had bugged the ancient philosophers. 

Why was he so fucking lively so early? 

And the question may appear childish and plainly stupid but in a head tormented by hangover it certainly felt like question worth millions of dollars. The answer to it was quite obvious.

Ah… right.

Kids and their limitless energy. Hank didn’t remember the last time he had any of that.

‘’Huh?’’

‘’We moved here yesterday. I wanted to come and greet you earlier, but I’ve never seen you coming back home.’’ Great ... another nosy neighbor who had nothing more to do than gossip and watch people. That was what this part of town needed the most. He rolled his eyes at the thought.

He closed the door and started walking toward his car as if nothing extraordinary happened on his porch, which wasn’t so far from the truth. Of course, it wasn’t common for somebody new to move here of all places but it did happen like once every twenty years.

“What’s your name?”

Hank ignored him. He had better things to do than taking care of someone else’s child like actually getting to work to pay the bills.

“It’s only polite to introduce yourself after somebody tells you their name.” Connor said with a little bit of annoyance in his voice. Tough shit kid, you were not the only one annoyed because of this conversation.

“No shit Sherlock.”

He was near the car… just a few steps and he would be inside. He stubbornly stared ahead. Maybe this child would get the memo that he didn’t want to talk with him?

“Well?” No such luck. His head hurt more every time the kid opened his mouth and he did that a lot. Were kids more talkative than he remembered? Why everything today was against him? What did he do wrong to deserve this?

So many questions left unanswered.

“Listen… I don't have the time for a fucking chit chat.” he turned to look at Connor. For some reason he was standing right behind him. Hadn’t he heard about something called personal space?

He took a step back.

He didn’t want to have problems, because Miss Right is waiting for a moment, when she could call the DPD and say that he was a criminal. Maybe he wasn’t a saint, but he wasn’t a goddamn pedophile, because some random kid was stuck to his back like glue.  
People really didn’t know what to do with their free time. All this hassle, because he didn’t want to come to her stupid fucking birthday party.

‘’Listen… I have to go to work and you have to go to your momma or whoever. Just go where other brats from this neighborhood go and live me alone.’’ Hank opened the car’s door and got inside. The kid didn’t give up and came closer.

‘’But…’’ He started talking with determination, but was interrupted.

‘’Stop fuckin’ bothering me’’ He said annoyed as he was closing the car’s door. Connor jumped a little bit at the sudden and loud sound.

Hank stubbornly stared ahead; he didn’t want to encourage this brat. He knew his car like nothing else in his life and so even without looking, he could start it. Hank did it and then drove away from his house without putting much thought for this unexpected visitor. He didn’t look back at the small figure that stared blankly after him until Hank disappeared from view.

* * *

**12:05 PM  
DPD**

Hank had a plan. He wanted to go straight to his desk, spend some hours doing absolutely nothing, then go to the nearest bar, and get wasted. Preferably with whiskey. He wouldn’t be thinking about anything, just him and his good friend Jack. Like all good things in life, they weren’t for Hank.

He didn’t have a chance to go with phase one of his brilliant plan.

‘’Anderson! To my office!’’ It was good to start your day with an angry shout from your boss. It sure motivated Hank to skip phase one.

He sighed frustrated, but went to the office without a word. 

Hank slowly opened that slick-looking glass door.

‘’Close the door and sit your ass down.’’

He did so without complain and looked at Fowler.

They sat in silence. Fowler didn’t look at Hank; he behaved like he didn’t just yell that he wanted the lieutenant in his office. Time passed without a word from those two. Fowler looked at something on his desk while Hank observed his boss. Hank knew this tactic; everyone knew it because that was what you do to get someone to confess. An old psychological trick that caused the suspect to squirm in his sit and wonder about how much information the integrator had. Did they know what I had done? 

‘’Listen Hank...You can’t continue like this.’’ Finally, he looked him in the eyes.

‘’Like what?’’ Hank crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. He stared at Fowler unimpressed. 

‘’Don’t play dumb. You’re coming to work late every day. You smell like someone who took a bath in a whiskey.’’ Fowler looked critically at him and then added ‘’You wear the same clothes for a week.’’

‘’What my fucking clothes have to do with how I do my job?!’’ He leaned forward. His voice was a mixture of anger and disbelief. It wasn’t a fashion week or anything like that, he worked here as a detective and not a model.

‘’Don’t raise your voice Anderson.’’ Fowler glared at him with the most vicious expression on his face.  
‘’I respect you as a person and a police officer…’’

He was getting more and more irritated with this conversation. Again, he wasn’t a model and he most certainly wasn’t selling a new hot look straight out of DPD. He caught killers, dealers, abusers and rapists, which was his job. DPD is not a fashion police for crying out loud.

He wouldn’t let Fowler get the satisfaction from making him angry. He tried not to show how much this topic got on his nerves.

‘’Cut the bullishit and get to the point’’ Hank interrupted.

‘’The point is... if you don’t get your act together then I won’t have any other choice than to fire you.’’

‘’WHAT?! That’s bullshit and you know it!’’ He stood up quickly with furious expression on his face. Fire him? For not wearing suit and tie while filling paperwork?!

‘’I know you’re the best detective, but I won’t let you destroy our good opinion with your behavior. We already had some calls about your _ behavior _ from Miss Right.’’ 

‘’That old cow…’’ Hank started angrily. She had been always making everything harder for him.

‘’That’s enough. You will do some paperwork for a week. I want to see you at 9 AM in fresh clothing and I want you to smell of something different than alcohol. Don’t make me repeat myself. Dismissed.’’ He turned towards something on his desk and didn’t look up until Hank went outside his office.

Hank got up and went to his desk with furious expression on his face. He sat on his chair and started staring blankly at a computer. Corpses didn’t care what he wears. Hank got results and that was all they should care about. Maybe sometimes he was a little drunk, but who wouldn’t? His life was a shitshow and nothing would change that but he was a lieutenant for some reason.

His hand automatically went to his cup, Hank wanted to drink some coffee, but when he tilted it, he found the cup empty. Coffee was the only drink that kept him on his feet in most situations but there was one problem: to get it you need to get up and go to the coffee machine. It was a shame that nobody thought of putting one on every desk in the office.

He was debating with himself if he should get up and go get some but then he saw one and only Gavin _ fucking _ Reed making a bee line towards the only lovable machine in this building. Suddenly his craving for some coffee, even if the coffee was shitty, stopped. He didn’t want to meet the other man, he was already pissed off and any contact with Reed not matter how brief would make him even angrier. 

Hank grimaced and then he put the cup down in the same place while grumpily switching on the computer. The perspective of doing boring paperwork got even worse when there wasn’t any caffeinated drink to drown his sorrows in.

* * *

**7:34 PM**

It was good to be home - any home was better than none. Hank was standing on the sidewalk and staring at his house.

It was quite peculiar how people were possessive of their spaces even when it was something small and insignificant. It didn’t take much to classify something as yours even though it never was – like a chair in the office, a mug or a table. You would probably get annoyed when someone else took your place or used something you usually used and that was natural. It was even worse with things that actually belong to you like a house. There is a word to make it even more special, to indicate it was truly yours and not another building in a city or a village – it was home – an there may be other people who wouldn’t agree with him but….

This house was his home no matter how empty it had become over time.

Hank didn’t know where those thoughts were coming from but he would like to blame low levels of alcohol in his body, every time he had gotten more sober more philosophical bullshit would surface in his mind. There was only one way to get rid of them but that wasn’t an option anymore. That was why he had not gone to the bar, but he had gone to the supermarket to buy necessary things like actual food to microwave at home. Hank would play nice with Fowler for now but that didn’t mean he would be changing all his life just because his boss told him to. He would do just enough to survive this situation and then…

He was about to open the door when he looked up. All the time since he got out of the car he had felt watched. He looked at the house across his own. He saw Connor watching him through the window. They stared at each other for a minute without blinking. Hank was the first one who looked to the side and stopped this weird staring match.

He got inside his home. He came to the nearest window and peeked outside. Connor was still watching Hank's house.

_What a fucking strange kid…_


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to highlight a little bit that this is happening before the game timeline and technology is not as perfect like in canon. However, it doesn’t mean it's undeveloped, just that you could still recognise (even with some trouble) an android without their LED due to their behaviour.

**8:47 AM**

He suddenly woke up in his bed, because he couldn’t breath, every inhale was a struggle. He blinked a couple of time to clear his eyes and to better wake up. Hank was a little confused. First, he was in a bedroom or more importantly in his bed. He groaned and then realised something… Something really heavy was laying on his chest. When he looked down, he came nose to nose with his dog. As soon as Hank did that, Sumo started panting in his face, he grimaced because morning breath of an animal is even worse than human’s. Nonetheless he started to pet the dog.

His fingers went through thick fur, sinking in. A repeated motion of going up and down, from the top of Sumo’s head to the middle of his back, was calming him and lulling him into a really nice state. It did remind him of meditation but with far more pleasant circumstances. He was warm and sinking into the bed not only because of his weight but also partially of his dog’s. It made him feel like he was hugged from every angle causing him to be more nostalgic and prone to recalling things that happen in the past. He remembered the time when he got Sumo. 

_It was another crime scene in some destroyed warehouse, someone was stabbed a few times. He did what he was always doing with a case like this; he went through the whole crime scene in search of some more clues. The only thing left to check was a closed container. He and other few guys managed to open it just barely and then he went inside. _

_He was switching on his flashlight when he heard a barely there whimper of an animal. He pointed the light at it and found one still alive puppy. It looked at him with hope because it was the only thing it could do when there was nothing to eat for who knew how long. _

_Hank was stunned. It was the last thing he expected to see in here._

When Sumo had been a puppy, he would sit on his chest without Hank suffocating after 5 minutes. The dog still liked to do that, but he weights more than before. It was a shame really that he couldn’t recreate those moments.

After thoughtful petting, he tried to get up, but it wasn’t easy. He was still pinned to bed by the head of 260 lb dog on his chest. He struggled for a bit, but the only reaction he got was a wagging tail of a very happy St. Bernard.

‘’Sumo get up’’ Hank said with stern voice. Sumo just looked at him with his brown eyes. The look you get when your dog tries to play innocent even when you both know who destroyed those shoes. There was also a bit of a mischievous spark in his eyes that had been really common when Sumo had been a puppy.

It took some time for Sumo to roll over and let his owner go.

Hank got up and went to the bathroom. He turned the lights on and went to brush his teeth, but stopped when he saw his reflection. Hank looked at his unkept hair and beard, which made look ever more like a wino from his childhood. He combed them with his fingers a little, but it didn’t made them look better, his hair and beard were as wild as now as they were before. 

Not only that made him look tired but also like something a cat would drag out of a sewer. To made matters even worse he couldn’t do anything with dark circles under his eyes neither. 

He had gone to sleep really late after drinking some beer. 

Well… It’s good that Fowler never said to not look like shit.

Hank brushed his teeth and then he changed his clothes. He didn’t put much thought into it, he took the very first thing that was hanging in the wardrobe. Sumo meanwhile changed rooms, he wasn’t on Hank’s bed anymore. He probably went to lay on the couch.

Hank went to his living room, Sumo was indeed splayed on the couch there.

‘’I would gladly change places with you…’’ said Hank grumpily. 

Sumo didn’t react.

Hank stared for a bit at his dog. When nothing happened, he sighed and went outside. 

‘’Today without surprises, huh?’’ he murmured as he opened the door.

Hank carefully looked around, but he couldn’t find the kid anywhere. After their first meeting, he had seen him for a week, but they had never talked. He had been either creepily starring from his house or from his porch. Two days without surveillance of some child sure had felt like freedom for him.

He went to his car, got inside and started it. The smell of old leather and stale alcohol filled his lungs. The car was a lifeboat where he could disappear when the shit storm was coming, a safe space that was far from home. That was one of the reasons why he didn’t change his car for more advanced model. He was a sentimentalist, it didn’t matter how much he disliked this particular quality of his.

As he was driving, he was greeted with familiar sight of autonomous cars and androids. People that were going around with plastic dolls trailing after them like some kind of pets. Pets without any visible leashes, programmed to obey their owners in everything. 

People were behaving as if it was normal but Hank couldn’t get rid of this strange feeling. He couldn’t be the only one who got the uncanny valley effect when he was looking at androids. They resembled humans all right but for him, they were always lacking in something, in something that was originally human and couldn’t be replaced with a line of code. How could a human create a perfectly resembling human-like machine when we had a problem to define what humanity was?

Androids weren’t the only ones, there were also other things that weren’t humanoid. Cars that didn’t need drivers and drivers that didn’t know how to start their own machines…what had happened.

And they said that we had been dependent on a technology, huh? Well… where were those geniuses? Probably they owned some android to wipe up their old asses.

Hank had never thought that the development of technology was bad. It would be really hard in a time he lived in. Devices really made our life easier, but some of them were an easy exit in life. They made people lazy.

You had problems with your wife? Get an android sex-doll. Satisfaction guaranteed and you didn’t have to listen to her nagging.   
Like the only thing you did with your lover was trying to get off. Where was the emotional connection? The feeling you got when you learned something new about your partner? The knowledge that they were doing what they do, because they loved you and not because they had been programmed to simulate? 

You had a kid, but you didn’t have the time or willingness to take care of it? Buy the android nanny. You could have your own brat without putting effort into raising it.   
Was it really your kid when something else did the hard job? Being a father or a mother wasn’t only about creating life. It was about being with them and teaching them different shit. It should matter if it was good or a bad time. Most of them were showing it into hands of an android and then they were surprised when their kid was a growing sociopath. What did you expect? Something unfeeling couldn’t teach how to feel emotions. 

He wasn’t even going to talk about those robo-children. Who had though it was a good idea? They simulate human needs like hunger, which made them into nothing else but creepy. 

Hank didn’t even realized that so much time had passed, he had to stop the car because he was near DPD.

It was time to get some work done.

* * *

**6:24 PM**

Home, sweet home. He closed the car’s door with a bang. He couldn’t wait to drop down on his couch.

‘’Hello Lieutenant Anderson’’ said a person with a voice like scratching nails on a blackboard. She always chose the worst time to appear from tin air. She was like a shark that smelled blood in the water.

‘’Miss Right… why do I get the pleasure of your company today?’’ annoyance was pouring from every pour in his body in waves. Today was getting better and better.

Miss Right was that kind of a person that you could tell is a piece of shit human being just by looking at her face. Wrinkles, that couldn’t be hidden with plastic surgery, where made by anger instead of old age. The one that got every item of their clothing matched perfectly with their fucking underwear. She was a local busybody and gossip queen. One minute she was smiling with you and the next, she was telling everybody your darkest secrets. 

That was why Hank hated her with a passion. The only type of person that was worse than fucking plastic pricks.

‘’Ah! I’m organizing my birthday party next week. My 60th to be honest.’’ She said with a slight tilt of her head as if her age was some kind of a sign of superiority. In reality, it didn’t mean anything and besides…

Honesty my ass. She had been 60 for fuckin’ 4 years now.

Why did some women feel the need to lie about their real age? In most cases, they still look old and it didn’t matter what they say. Nobody cares. Even after years of marriage, women where sometimes still a mystery to him. 

‘’Yeah?’’ Sarcasm is like an old friend for Hank. 

‘’Yes. I’m inviting you’’ tone of her voice was one of someone who was used to people following their orders. The one that didn’t give you a chance to refuse if you want to live peacefully. 

Hank knew what would happen if he refuse, but he would be damned if he go to that party. He’d rather spends a day with Gavin Reed than with this hag. He may be a masochist but even he had some limits.

‘’Well…I’m not going’’

Stunned silence was what happened after his answer. She didn’t move a muscle; it made her look like a statue while Hank looked at her with bored expression on his face. They stood like that for a minute. Some cars passed them by as the only indicator that more time had passed than mere seconds.

When he was turning around she unexpectedly came to life. 

‘’And why is that?’’ annoyance was colouring her voice, but her face remained impassive like a stone mask. It could be that really because of some plastic surgeries that didn’t end well. He stopped to look at her with unimpressed face.

‘’Because I have better shit to do’’

‘’All neighbourhood is invited.’’ Like it was – again some kind of an achievement - it really wasn’t. ‘’You can meet our new neighbours. They’re very busy people. I heard that they…’’

‘’See how much I give a fuck?’’ He interrupted annoyed and then Hank showed her a zero.

She gasped and took step back while putting her right hand on her chest. She looked like an actress who is trying too hard on a stage so the effect of her performance was more of a parody of an original thing.

‘’I’ll tell everybody about this Lieutenant’’ She was furious. Her face would be red as a tomato, but her make-up covered everything up. The only thing that was missing was a steam from her ears like in those old cartoons.

‘’Great! That’s the only thing I want’’ He was fed up with this conversation. 

He quickly went to his house. He had enough arguing with Miss Right. She could fuckin’ call DPD all she wanted. He didn’t give a shit now. Some people needed a goddamn hobby and Miss Holier-than-thou was a perfect example.

He dropped down on the couch and then he scratched his body. He felt some of his joints cracking. The feeling he got after was well worth it. He was truly relaxed for the first time this week. He sighed and then he closed his eyes.

It was really peaceful. He didn’t hear any fake people in real life or TV; it was like heaven or a balm for his nerves. If only he could stay like this forever. 

He got more comfortable. He had never felt so tired in his life even the death of… 

He shook his head. He couldn’t think about _that._

He closed his eyes again. That was the last thing Hank remembered before he fell asleep on his couch.

.  
.  
.  
.

A constant sound of his doorbell woke Hank up. He nearly fell of the couch. He jumped out of it, his heart was beating like a bird in cage, adrenaline was going through his veins like in a moment of pursuing a dangerous suspect. 

He didn’t remember the time when he woke up so fast in his life.

The doorbell was still ringing. Whoever was on the other side…  
Hank full of irritation went to the door. He yanked them open with so much force it nearly was ripped from its hinges. 

He came face to face with the creepy kid. Literally. Last time kid’s eyes were the same level as his stomach, but now? He couldn’t grow up so much in such sort amount of time. He looked down shocked. 

The kid was standing on some chair. It didn’t look like anything that would belong to Hank so he had took it from somewhere else and had bring it here. 

And he still was ringing his goddamn doorbell.

‘’What the fuck are you doing?’’

‘’Hello Lieutenant Anderson’’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for your comments and kudos, it really motivates me to sit down and work on those chapters <3


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm a dummy, I've forgotten to add **Bullying** as a tag. I'm sorry if you wanted to read this ff and learned that bullying is in ( ͡° ʖ̯ ͡°)

_‘’What the fuck are you doing?’’_

_‘’Hello Lieutenant Anderson’’_

‘’How the hell do you know my name?’’ He stared full of suspicion at the kid. He would remember if he ever told him his name or his rank in DPD.

The child didn’t give a fuck. He was still standing on that chair and looking at him with his goofy face, playing innocent. Hank looked at the kid again. He was still wearing that stupid suit from their first meeting.

Who was dressing him? They really should check out if their brain was still in working order because no one would tell him that this kid had been wearing it from his own free will. 

Unaware of thoughts that were going around Hank’s head, he said:  
‘’I heard your conversation with Miss Right’’ The boy said with a little bit of pride in his voice for accomplishing such task as eavesdropping. 

‘’She was really upset you declined her invitation for her birthday party. I heard that 60th birthday is something special’’ A small frown showed up on his face. He looked like he was trying to solve the mystery of the universe instead of getting why it was so special. The funny part was that it really wasn’t anything special. Just another birthday made you closer to your death. It was a day like any other day in your life.

‘’She is fucking 60 for 4 years now’’ Hank said with perplexed face. Everybody knew that, but people were humouring that hag. Most of them were going only for free food. You had to be a masochist to spend any amount of time with this two-faced woman.

‘’Oh… I didn’t know’’ The boy looked down confused. He stared at his shoes like they were somehow responsible for the lack of knowledge in this area.

The ringing was still present. He felt his eye twitch in annoyance, the sound made him irritated. There was a reason for choosing such doorbell, but he had been cursing this decision for some time.

‘’Are you gonna stop ringing this goddamn doorbell or what?’’ Hank snapped.

‘’Oh!’’ He took his finger away from the doorbell like it was burned. The kid smiled at him awkwardly. Hank didn’t say anything, because he waited for the boy to start. After two minutes of staring at each other with blank expressions on their faces, Hank had enough.  
‘’What do you want?’’ Resignation was clearly heard in his voice. He sighed in annoyance.

‘’I wanted to say ‘hello’ ’’ He looked at Hank with expectant look in his eyes. The kid didn’t say anything else, but he stared at the older male. Hank blinked a couple of times in quick succession.

‘’You are kidding me’’ Hank made a move to close the door. He had enough of bullshit at work. He didn’t want to have it at home, especially from some strange boy. He wasn’t buying it. Some 10 year old wanted to say hello to him? Of all people in this neighbourhood, he had chosen the most unfriendly one? Yeah right… and pigs could fly.

‘’No! Wait Lieutenant Anderson!’’ The boy raised his voice in panic. He slammed his tin palm with all the force of a kid into his door. It wasn’t much if you compare it to that of a full-grown man, but it was enough to stop Hank.

‘’Huh? What now?’’

‘’I have some cookies and I want you to have some.’’ The kid said really fast as if he was afraid that in the next second the door was going to close. He wasn’t wrong.

‘’Well… I don’t want them.’’ Hank said grumpily and closed his front door in the boy’s face.

As soon as he took one-step away from the door, the sound of constant ringing started. The kid though he could make him do something? Well… he was in for a surprise, because Hank could be pigheaded.

He went to the living room and dropped on the couch. Not long after Sumo graced him with his presence and let him pet his fur.

After 15 minutes the ringing stopped. He heard outside a soft sound of something hitting the ground. The boy probably got down from the chair and took it with him wherever it had been taken from previously.

Silence was like honey, sweet and never unexpired.

**6:34 PM**

Who would had thought that he would end up in a car chase?  
Hank certainly had not. 

Long story short, it ended with his car in a need of a mechanic and with a suspect in an interrogation room with our friendly detective Reed. He wasn’t even sorry for that son of a bitch who was killing kids. How much of a sick fuck you had to be to do something like that?

Hank right now was on his way from the mechanic, he decided to just go home and wait until his car was ready. Fortunately, it wasn’t really far away, some fresh air would help him in cleaning his head.

And there was a lot of shit that needed cleaning. He could think like a suspect but he could never understand them. Of course, Hank had that thought in his head when he was angry…who had never ever said ‘I’m gonna kill this or that’ without actually meaning it? He knew the value of even the shittiest human life, even when he got furious and drunk there was an invisible barrier that could never be broken.

He had a problem in offing himself… Look! He was still here, on earth, breathing, and wasting his time and… and…

Taking care of Sumo.

So maybe it wasn’t as bad as it could be.

He was just turning toward his street when he heard yelling. He turned his head in direction of a front yard. He saw three teenagers beating up some unfortunate kid; all of their backpacks were thrown on the ground. The bullies approximately were between 14 and 16 years old. They all were wearing nice and clean clothing, which would mean that they lived in this neighbourhood and that they weren’t some random people from the bad part of town.

The victim was lying on the ground and trying to hide his face and stomach from vicious kicks of other kids. The bullies were laughing while their hits started to get more brutal.

‘’Hey! You lil’ fuckers!’’ Hank yelled as loud as he could. He was already angry and witnessing someone being bullied wasn’t helping.

Teenagers stopped to look at him. All of them were staring at him with stupid expressions on their faces. The victim froze on the ground.  
‘’What do you want old man?’’ the oldest one said with a cocky attitude. He smirked at Hank. The other two also smirked like the lackeys they were.

‘’I want you to let this kid go. You can’t bother someone your own size?’’ He started going in their direction. He saw the teenagers looked at each other but after a second, they came to some conclusion, because their smirks widened. 

‘’Can you?’’ The third one said when he kicked the poor kid who gasped loudly.  
They were laughing and making rude comments about him.

Hank had enough. He quickly closed the distance between himself and the leader of this group of bullies. He grabbed the collar of the leader’s stupidly expensive T-shirt. He pulled the now surprised brat to himself. 

‘’Listen you pathetic shit. The only thing that pisses me off more than androids are bullies. Right now I’m controlling myself, but next time I’ll see you beating someone? Your own fucking mother will never recognize you.’’ He glared at them with the most threatening face he could master.

All of them gulped nervously. The lackeys quickly grabbed their shit and escaped while they still could. The one he was still holding, tried uselessly to escape, but Hank’s grip was strong and trashing like a wild animal in his hold didn’t help. 

‘’You understand?’’ Hank asked seriously.

Brat nodded vigorously. Hank let him fear for his life for a minute and then he let him go. He grabbed his backpack and run away nearly tripping at the end of the sidewalk. Hank stared at him until the brat disappeared from view. 

Hank turned towards the victim. He was looking at Hank with surprised expression on his face. He had split lip and on his cheekbone he had a bruise. A black eye started to from. Hank’s eyes widen when he realized that this is the creepy kid from his street.

He looked pathetic and so unlike himself. Gone were his perfectly stylized hair and spotless suit. His tie was missing and the collar of his white shirt was reaped. Red drops of blood were staining it along with dirt. 

The boy was sitting on the ground and looking at him with watery eyes. Hank started to feel uncomfortable.

‘’You all right, kid?’’ What a stupid question. Of course, he wasn’t all right. The kid blinked a couple of times and then looked to the side. He slowly got up and started to dust of his clothing. 

It didn’t help.

At all. 

His clothes were ruined and there was no way it would look professional again.  
‘’My name is Connor.’’ He said with a surprising confidence like he hadn’t had his shit beat out of him a minute ago. He grabbed his backpack and looked at him blankly. 

‘’Yeah?’’ He asked a little distracted.

‘’Yes. I would really appreciate it if you would use my name instead of ‘kid’ ‘’ An angry poodle was glaring at him. He tried to help him and that was what he got? What the world came to?

‘’Yeah? I don’t think so kid. I’m going to call you whatever I want’’ He wasn’t a pushover and he would do whatever he want. He was a grown man and a puppy dog eyes weren’t working for him. The kid glared at him with one eye, because the other one was swollen. It didn’t look threatening at all.

Tension was so thick in the air that you could cut it with a knife. Hank started to walk first. He knew that the kid was following him, he knew because he could easily hear footsteps. They walked in heavy silence towards their houses. For some time nobody said anything. It started to get unbearably awkward. Hank opened his mouth to say something even when he didn’t know what to say, but was interrupted by a shy confession.  
‘’I like dogs.’’ 

Hank stopped walking and turned towards the boy. Kid looked like he said something unforgivable like saying it out loud was the greatest sin in his young life. He was fidgeting and looking at the ground. His not so perfect hair were obscuring his face and making it impossible for Hank to see his expression. Hank waited for a bit. He waited to see if the boy would say something else, but he didn’t. He stayed stubbornly in silence like he didn’t just say something.

‘’Where that came from?’’

‘’I…I lied a bit.’’ Kid said in hushed tone. His ears became red and he started to rub his hands nervously.

‘’About?’’ Hank raised a surprised eyebrow. He knew the kid was bullshiting him from a start, but he didn’t expect him to say so to his face. Especially after what happened.

‘’About the reason why I came to you this morning Lieutenant Anderson.’’ He looked more and more miserable as the time passed. He was still rubbing his hands, but with more jerky movements. 

Hank knew that some people need to say out loud what was bothering them to feel better. The boy was clearly one of them. Hank sighted in his thoughts. He wasn’t good at comforting people. It didn’t matter what age they were, but he couldn’t ignore him. It would be better to get this over with, like ripping the band-aid.

‘’And what is the reason, huh?’’ Hank said in bored tone. He didn’t want to force the kid if he didn’t want to say it. This way Hank could easily said that he wasn’t interested if the boy was struggling too much with an answer. This wasn’t the case here.

‘’One day I saw you going around with a dog. You were holding the leash… I concluded that there was a probability that it is your dog. I wanted to pet it, but I knew that the chance of you agreeing to my request would be slim to none. We baked too much cookies and well… I needed the excuse.’’ He said so softly that Hank would had a problem to hear it if he didn’t expect an answer.

‘’And what was your plan exactly?’’ He crossed his arms on his chest. 

‘’I… I wanted to distract you or just make you like me enough to invite me inside’’ Boy glanced at him with clear embarrassment on his face. 

It took Hank sometime to proceed what just happened. He stared at the kid in disbelief.  
‘’This was your grand scheme? I expected something more complicated’’

‘’I admin… I was a little foolish, but it doesn’t matter.’’ The boy smiled at him with a clumsily smile. He looked like he didn’t know how to do that.  
‘’Thank you for your help and… goodbye Lieutenant Anderson.’’ Then he quickly went in the direction of his house. His head was hung low, but his small shoulders were hiked up. He was wearing his backpack on only one shoulder, because the other strap was destroyed and essentially useless. 

Hank was standing there staring after him.

‘’His name is Sumo’’ The words escaped his mouth without him realizing until it was too late. The boy stopped, but didn’t turn around to face him.

‘’He is a St.Bernard’’ What the fuck? Where did that come from? The words hung in the air between them making silence after more pronounced. The kid faced him at least.

‘’I’m going to walk with him a bit…. You can tag along if you want’’ He said grumpily as he looked away. He missed small, but sincere smile full of happiness that appeared on Connor’s face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't even know what to say but thank you for your comments and kudos <3
> 
> This short fic was the beginning of a long story I had in mind a year ago. I’m not sure if I’m going to write it but I’ve decided to post this. I hope you've enjoyed it even in this form :D

**Author's Note:**

> This thing was on my computer for a year until I decided to do some minor changes and well... I've ended up with a chapter nearly double in size to the previous version. I have two more chapters that need the same treatment but I wonder if you would like to see more of this story?


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